Alain Vivien

Infobox_Politician


name = Alain Vivien
imagesize =
caption = Alain Vivien
birth_date = Birth date and age|1938|8|20|mf=y
birth_place = Melun, France
residence = France
death_date =
death_place =
office = Mayor
term_start = 1977
term_end = 1983
predecessor =
successor =
constituency = Combs-la-Ville
office2 = Secretary of State
term_start2 = 1991
term_end2 = 1992
predecessor2 =
successor2 =
constituency2 = France
office3 = Chairman, MILS
term_start3 = 1998
term_end3 = 2002
predecessor3 =
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constituency3 =
party = French Socialist Party
religion =
occupation =
majority =
relations =
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website =
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Alain Vivien (born August 20, 1938, in Melun) is a French Socialist Party (PS) politician, best known for chairing (from 1998 to 2002) the French "Mission Interministérielle pour la Lutte contre les Sectes", MILS, a ministerial organism designed to observe the activities of various religious organizations defined as "Sectes" (cults).

Early career

He was mayor of Combs-la-Ville in 1977-1983 and 1989-1992. In 1983 he was elected to the French National Assembly for Seine-et-Marne as a PS cadidate. The author of a report on cults requested by Prime Minister Pierre Mauroy in 1982, he was Secretary of State under Edith Cresson in 1991-1992.

In 1998 Vivien was nominated chairman of the MILS, which had been formed to coordinate government monitoring of "sectes" (name given to cults in France). In February 1998, MILS released its annual report on the monitoring of sects.

Corruption allegations

Vivien was criticized for allegedly using more than half the MILS budget for foreign travel, including to the People's Republic of China. Alain Ostmont, the general secretary of MILS, stated in response to these allegations in an interview that Vivien did not travel much for MILS, but that he undertook travels for humanitarian organizations which he chaired at the same time, and that this had been confused by some reports. He specifically added that Vivien was sent to the Beijing conference by the government as representative of the French state, not by MILS ref|Lardeur.Fact|date=December 2007

CESNUR writes that, during his tenure as president of MILS, Alain Vivien attended together with anti-cultist organizations such as the French CCMM and the European Federation of anti-cult movements FECRIS a colloquium organized by the Chinese government on the topic of cults ref|CESNUR, and interprets this as assisting the Chinese government in repressing religious minorities. Countering the allegation, FECRIS states that it had been invited but did not take part, and that the co-organiser United Nations Development Programme confirms that CCMM did not offer any support to the repression of Falun Gong.Fact|date=December 2007

During the FECRIS application for NGO-status, the matter was also investigated by the Council of Europe Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights. The rapporteur, the Swiss Councillor Dick Marty, noted that the symposium had been co-organized by the United Nations, and had also been attended by representatives of numerous other states - including the United States - and concluded that: :"The CESNUR report misrepresents the contents of the" Regards sur "newsletter: taking everything into accounts, there is insufficient credible evidence for the allegations to be made out."ref|

Marty's report was adopted by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on March 18, 2005 [http://assembly.coe.int/Main.asp?link=http://assembly.coe.int/committee/SC/2005/PER033E.pdf] .

Awards

*Leipzig Human Rights Award, May 11, 2002

References

* fr icon [http://www.prevensectes.com/rev0208.htm#22b "Pourquoi la bataille anti-sectes a échoué ?"] ("Why the fight against cults failed") by Thomas Lardeur, "VSD", August 22 to 28, 2002
* CESNUR, Anonymous, "Innocents Abroad: French Anti-Cultists, Mission Support China’s Anti-Cult Campaign" [http://www.cesnur.org/2001/jan30.htm] (Retrieved October, 2005)
* "Le Parisien", June 19, 2002.
* fr icon "Sectes : Alain Vivien placé sous protection policière" "L'Humanité", January 14, 1999 [http://www.humanite.fr/journal/1999-01-14/1999-01-14-441385] .
* Council of Europe, [http://assembly.coe.int/Documents/WorkingDocs/Doc05/EDOC10470.htm Report regarding FECRIS] by Dick Marty: Doc 10470 of 7 March 2005

ee also

*About-Picard law
*Cults and governments
*Status of religious freedom in France
*
*List of anti-cult organizations and individuals